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We all know who The Girl is. She holds The Hero’s hand as he runs through the Pyramids, chasing robots. Or she nags him, or foils him, plays the uptight straight man to his charming loser. She’s idealised, degraded, dismissed, objectified and almost always dehumanised. How do we process these insidious portrayals, and how do…

16 With a second season of The Handmaid’s Tale recently announced and Alias Grace coming to a (Netflix) screen near you this autumn, Margaret Atwood fever is in the air. But which of her novels is your favourite? From Man Booker winning The Blind Assassin to the wickedly funny Stone Mattress to the mesmerising world…

Introducing the Virago Modern Classic Book Club August pick: In A Summer Season by Elizabeth Taylor. A love story for the ages, this August we are reading Elizabeth Taylor’s In A Summer Season. Will you be reading along? “You taste of rain,” he said, kissing her. “People say I married her for her money,” he thought contentedly,…

A childhood favourite that deserves a re-read. ‘Oh, it seems so wonderful that I’m going to live with you and belong to you. I’ve never belonged to anybody’ When a scrawny, freckled girl with bright red hair arrives on Prince Edward Island, Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert are taken by surprise; they’d asked for a quiet…

This July marks 50 years since the creation of the Sexual Offences Act of 1967, which partially decriminalised homosexual acts between men in England and Wales and helped give birth to the modern LGBTQ rights movement in the UK. Sarah Waters is well known for her contribution to LGBTQ literature – she has won two…

Tense and thrilling, Stella Duffy’s brilliant new psychological suspense, The Hidden Room, publishes next week and we’ve got five hardbacks to give away. To be in with the chance of winning, enter your details in the box below, making sure to read our terms and conditions first. Winners will be announced on 6th July. Good…

A squirrel, a pig and an evacuee. Three charming stories from one of our best loved children’s authors, Nina Bawden, are coming to the VMC children’s list. Keeping Henry – out of print for years – is available now, with The Peppermint Pig and Carrie’s War publishing in November this year. Grab your copy of…

To celebrate the release of Roger Michell’s adaptation of My Cousin Rachel, we’ve teamed up with Fox to offer you the chance to win a beautiful boxed set of Daphne Du Maurier novels and a signed film poster. The box set contains five gorgeous VMC editions – My Cousin Rachel, Rebecca, Frenchman’s Creek, Jamaica Inn and…

On the 22nd of June, we publish Deborah Tannen’s You’re the Only One I Can Tell: Inside the Language of Women’s Friendships, the illuminating and validating book which gets inside the language of one of most women’s life essentials – female friendships. Below is an exclusive extract from the book: Introduction = Best friend, old friend, good…